


Lonely Synthesizer

by Nellancholy



Category: BanG Dream! (Anime), BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Jealousy, Pining, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 16:42:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17770463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nellancholy/pseuds/Nellancholy
Summary: Chisato still loves Aya.





	Lonely Synthesizer

[2 PM, Sunday]

Chisato Shirasagi, former child actor, bassist of Pastel Palettes, and all around minor celebrity stared out the wide window of her agency’s rehearsal studio. Her fingers traced tentatively along the fretboard of the guitar she’d borrowed and her eyes took another glance over the chord book resting in her lap. She couldn’t believe she’d agreed to this. And yet, for Aya, she’d do a lot more. More than she’d already been doing for her.

 

* * *

  
[8 PM, Friday; two days ago]

Chisato’s thin,calloused fingers flexed as her pen glided along the page, writing out her essay. She’d learned how to appear academically committed a long time ago. After all, she’d been juggling work and study pretty much ever since she could walk. Her thoughts drifted to Aya, her band’s cheery pink-haired vocalist. It’d been more or less a year since they were formed into a band under the talent agency’s guidance. Since then… they’d all grown so much. As performers, as individuals, as…friends.

But Aya was probably the one who grew most. She started off as a total crybaby, and now…well, she was still a crybaby, but now she was a competent one. A…talented one. Chisato had never heard a voice quite like hers. So passionate, so joyful. Not to mention her big, sparkly eyes, and the way she always held on to Chisato’s arm tight when they went out together…

Involuntarily, a grunt escaped Chisato’s throat as she caught herself, resuming her focus on her work. She wasn’t the type to find herself drawing hearts or little Ayas all over the page. Did anyone even actually do things like that? In the past year of her career, she’d met quite a few…eccentric people. Something like that probably wasn’t unheard of.

Her internal monologue was interrupted by the buzz of her phone. A quick glance at the screen indicated that Aya was calling her.

“ _At this hour_ …?” It wasn’t like Chisato would ignore her, of all people. Tapping on the screen, she accepted the call. “Aya? Good evening…is something the matter?”

“Um, well…” As poised and graceful as she was onstage, sometimes Aya still had a tendency to hesitate in her conversations. “…Chisato, I was just wondering if…you were free this Sunday afternoon?”

“Oh…?” Chisato felt a smile tug at the corner of her lips. “Why, this is somewhat short notice, isn’t it? If you wanted to schedule a shopping date for us, you could’ve done it when we were in school…”

 _Date_. She used that word so casually. But deep down she knew that what Aya thought it meant and what it actually meant were two very different things.

“W-well, i-its not that.” Aya gasped. “I just…wanted to practice. Practice… _guitar_.”

“Guitar?” Chisato was somewhat thankful that Aya couldn’t see her raised eyebrow. “As in, lead guitar? Why don’t you ask…Hina for that?” She had to restrain herself from spitting out the name of their lead guitarist.

“A-ahem.” Aya cleared her throat. A few seconds of silence. Chisato could almost imagine Aya pacing in her usual nervous way on the other end. “Chisato, you see…this _is_ for Hina. O-our anniversary is coming up, and I thought I could play a song for her…”

Chisato blinked. Of course. Aya had started going out with the guitarist a few weeks ago. They had to keep it on the down low, of course, but Aya did tell the rest of Pastel Palettes, all the better to help them keep it under wraps. Chisato had spent the next week in a haze, and just when she thought she’d finally learned to accept it…this happened.  
The thing was, Chisato could almost see what it was in Hina that drew Aya to her. That sense of imagination and eccentric wonder, that energy, that smug, teasing demeanor…

How could someone so airheaded and irresponsible be such a talented guitarist?! Or as Hina herself would say, a “boppity zappin’ guitarist”. Or something like that. Chisato could almost hear her voice in her head right this moment, and it made her want to pull her hair out.

Chisato had been a mentor to all of them, thanks to her experience in the industry. She’d given Aya so much. She’d given Hina so much. And now…simply because she’d never actually expressed her feelings to Aya…she was stuck in second place for Aya’s love.

“...Chisato?” Aya raised her voice ever so slightly. “You still there? I-I mean, if you’re busy, I can work it out myself…”

“Oh!” Chisato shook her head firmly, dismissing all the jealous, toxic, venomous thoughts from her head for the moment. “I’m not! I mean, I’m not busy, Sunday…did you want to learn anything in particular?”

“Yeah, I wanted to maybe play and sing Shuwarin for Hina! You know…it’s the first song we recorded together…”

Somehow, Chisato got the feeling that what Aya meant by “we” and what Chisato thought it meant were two very different things.

“It’s…for Aya…”

“ _For…Aya…_ ”

Despite her better judgement, she flashed another smile.

“You know…I think that’d be lovely. I’ll see you Sunday…and we can practice together!”

 

* * *

  
[3:00 PM, Sunday]

“Chisato…I just want to thank you again for doing this for me. I-I know I’m a little slow sometimes…”

“Oh please. You know you can never ask for too much from me, Aya…” Chisato’s rough fingers rested on Aya’s delicate ones, gently guiding her through the chords. “Besides, this’ll be good for your career…being good at instruments gives you more options.” Standing up and taking a few steps back, she cast an appraising gaze over Aya. “Alright then, do you think you have it? Let’s try running through the whole thing, from the top.”

“Okay!” Aya beamed a wide, confident smile. “Here I go…!”

To guide her along, Chisato clasped her hands and began to sing along, to the song they’d performed together quite a few times. Her voice was of a deeper register than Aya’s, but she threw everything she had into the melody, keeping time for Aya’s tentative playing.

_Shuwa shuwa_

_Hajiketa kimochi no namae oshiete yo_

_Kimi wa shiteru_

_Shuwa shuwa, dori-dorimin yeah!_

Lyrics about overflowing feelings about to burst forth, delivered in a joyful, abjectly saccharine tone. The irony was not lost on Chisato. If she narrowed her eyes, focused her every sense on Aya’s playing…it was easier to imagine that Aya was giving a performance for her and only her, to imagine that this wasn’t just a rehearsal for the person Aya really wanted to play for…

Aya was breathing heavily, sweat beading on her scrunched-up face as she delivered the final riff and looked expectantly up at Chisato. “H-how’d I do?”

Returning from her reverie, Chisato leaned in, patting Aya’s head. “You did…a pretty good job! You’re not as bad at learning as you seem to think, Aya…”

A flush came over Aya’s face, as though Chisato’s compliment injected a gout of steam into her head. “T-thank you, Chisato. A-and your voice is lovely,too…”

Chisato paused, her face hanging over Aya’s.

Not responding, she leaned in, just a bit closer…and planted a gentle kiss on Aya’s forehead.

Pulling back like nothing happened, she clapped her hands twice. “Now then, let’s work on the second verse again…”

“...” Wordlessly, Aya gripped the neck of the guitar again, preparing to practice for her girlfriend again.

 

* * *

  
[Sunday, 5:00 PM]

The two girls walked hand in hand, their eyes not meeting as they passed through the train station.

“Say, Chisato…you sure you don’t wanna have dinner together?”

Sighing, Chisato gently shook her head. “It’s alright. I think today was a bit tiring. Haven’t sang like that in years…”

Aya’s grip on her hand tightened for a brief moment, before letting go. “In that case…I guess this is where I get on my train. I’ll…call you later, okay?”

Chisato smiled. Chisato forced herself to smile. That’s what an actress would do, always. “You got it. Listen…don’t stress out over whether you pull it off. Just…have a good anniversary with Hina, okay?”

“O-okay. You too!” Aya frowned, realizing her faux pas. “I mean…you have a good…whatever you have planned for that day, okay?”

With that, she turned and passed through the electronic gate, walking to the platform without a moment’s glance backwards.

“...” Chisato just realised something. They started dating just a month ago. Hardly the time to be celebrating an anniversary, wasn’t it?

Unless,of course…Aya and Hina used the date Pastel Palettes first assembled, one year ago as their anniversary date.

“ _What a cruel joke…”_ Just the kind of thing Hina would come up with.

And with that, she turned and headed back into the city.

  
“ _It was a heavy burden to bear, unrequited love.”_

Chisato chuckled bitterly. Sounds like a line out of one of those angsty dramas she’d played a supporting role in before.

_“...but Chisato Shirasagi would bear that burden with dignity. That was one of the things she was good at doing…”_

_“...And the other thing she was good at, was never, ever complaining.”_


End file.
